PAKKRET, Thailand (UCAN) -- Most delegates to the World Youth Day (WYD) program in Australia would have had chances to share their experience while a group of French teenagers shared the life of poor urban dwellers around Bangkok.

After participating in the July 15-20 WYD program in Sydney, 13 French youths volunteered to come to Thailand to stay and work in slums for two days.

Brother Bernard Wirth, a French Oblate missioner here, facilitated the program with the help of St. Martin Center of Our Lady of Mercy Church in Pakkret, just north of Bangkok.

"Their intention is to learn about various ways of life by living among slum people," said Father Raphael Manenti, parish priest of Our Lady of Mercy Church. The Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) priest added that the teenagers joined this program because they wanted to be "witnesses of the Holy Spirit."

UCA News spoke with the Italian missioner and others involved in the program, including several of the youths.

Sarah Meffre, 18, said she and 23 other French WYD delegates arrived in Bangkok on July 24, after which 13 joined the slum program while the rest joined another program at a university.

Utomporn Minanond, St. Martin Center coordinator, explained that the French volunteers, 12 in pairs and one alone, spent in one of seven slums in the general area. They stayed with host families and did whatever the family did.

"They slept on the bare wooden floor and did the same job the family did, such as collecting garbage, making artificial flowers and putting charcoal in packages," Minanond recounted. "I could feel their enthusiasm. They were faithful Catholics, often praying together before starting any activity. They were always ready to work with the slum dwellers without complaint."

Thibout Girard described the program as a "great experience" that was "so different from being in France." He spoke of the people in the slum "living in the rubbish, sleeping on the floor" and "always in a hurry to do something with no time to take a break."

Nonetheless, their warmth moved Girard, 18. "They introduced us to all the other people in the slum. They were very friendly and came to say 'Hello,' 'Where are you from?' They were interested in us," he recalled. The French teenager said he would also take home memories of washing dishes and cooking on the floor.

After the program, the French volunteers gathered at St. Martin Center for a final meeting. "How can the poor slum dwellers still have smiling faces?" was the most common question they raised.

Father Andreano Paulzin, former assistant parish priest at Our Lady of Mercy, answered: "Thais usually show their happy rather than sad side. They don't want anyone to look down on them or feel pity for them."

Nonetheless, the PIME priest affirmed that the slum dwellers were honored to welcome the French youths.

According to Pandhop Rangupai, head officer of St. Martin Center, the center does social work in the seven slums around the parish. It provides temporary accommodation for children from troubled families, supports students' education, and provides medicine and care to elderly and sick people.

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